Carta

Carta began as a bedroom recording project in 2002 by Kyle Monday, Jason Perez, and a revolving cast of San Francisco musicians. Ambient instrumental songs developed organically from looped guitar melodies, which also served as metronomes in the absence of a drummer.
As members joined and left, the desire to perform the songs in another setting grew, so the duo became a real band with bassist Ray Welter and drummer Sonny Culbertson. They honed a set of material for live shows, including some songs with vocals (supplied by supplemental keyboardist Sarah Bell).

In 2005, this band recorded "The Glass Bottom Boat" with engineer Eli Crews (of Elephant 6 band Beulah). The album features contributions from keyboardist Jared Matt Greenberg and bassist Sacha Galvagna of Charles Atlas, and cello by Alexander Kort (of Subtle), all former members of the band Charles Atlas.

"The Glass Bottom Boat" was released by UK label Resonant on August 20th, 2007.

The Silent Ballet said about the album, "It's rare that we see an album that is so grounded in reality, yet simultaneously this immaculately breathtaking - highly recommended for fans of Gregor Samsa, Stars of the Lid, and This is Your Captain Speaking."

In 2009, after some minor lineup adjustments, Carta returned to the studio to record a follow up, entitled "An Index of Birds". Featuring drums by Howlin' Rain member Raj Ojha and vocals by Lorealle Bishop, and again engineered and mixed by Eli Crews, the album was released on CD by US label Silber in 2010 to excellent reviews:

"Switching from short neo-classical pieces to stomping rock with echoes of bands as diverse as Tarwater, Piano Magic, Low, Rachel's and Mogwai" (Dezj), "some beautiful Codeine dream on an Eno ocean" (The Big Takeover), and "truly an album to cherish" (Foxy Digitalis).

Following the release of "Birds," Gabriel Coan (Continental, The Orange Peels, Christopher Willits) joined the group on a full time basis as drummer.

"The Faults Follow" is the third album by Carta. As we did on the second album, we wanted to break the templates we previously established and explore new territory. Paranoid inner-vacuum micro-dub and ruminative post-space hypno-drone? The album has more of a focus on vocals, with only one true instrumental this time out. While still shaded by darkness, we soaked in influence from Young Marble Giants, Disco Inferno, and latter day Hood, with electronic elements giving a little more lift to the songs, and members swapped instrumental duties around as the songs called for it. The album was recorded by the band at home and at Studio 3431, and was mixed by Jay Pellicci (the Drift, Deerhoof, Death Cab for Cutie) at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco.